1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a systems and methods for providing to users automobile safety and maintenance information and related services.
2. Discussion of the Background
Vehicle owners and people shopping for vehicles are or at least should be interested in various types of vehicle safety and maintenance information. Examples of information of interest include recall information, technical service bulletins (TSBs), NHTSA investigations, consumer complaints and other safety and maintenance information. It is currently difficult for people to access this information conveniently, to stay up to date on changes to this information and to sort through the relevant/irrelevant material once it is accessed.
Various web sites exist that enable a user to retrieve bits of automobile safety and maintenance information. Some of these sites require a user to continuously monitor the site to maintain up to date information. Some of the sites provide only limited information, thus requiring the user to visit multiple sites to obtain a xe2x80x9ccompletexe2x80x9d set of relevant information. Many of the sites do not present the information in a very use friendly format. For example, some sites merely present information in chronological order. These and other drawbacks exist in known systems. These and other difficulties in accessing and using safety and maintenance information is a drawback.
Another problem for car owners is they sometimes forget to take their vehicle back to the dealer for scheduled maintenance and they sometimes forget that a vehicle""s warranty is about to expire. These problems can lead to well recognized adverse consequences for the vehicle owner.
Other drawbacks and disadvantages of these web sites exist.
The present invention provides computer systems and methods that provide automobile safety and maintenance information and related services.
According to one embodiment, a computer implemented system comprises a website that provides a vehicle selector that enables a user of the system to select one or more vehicles (e.g., by selecting one or more of a vehicle year, make and model), and retrieve various types of safety and/or maintenance information for selected vehicles. Although the invention is not so limited, the information retrieved may include one or more of TSBs, consumer complaints, recall notices and NHTSA investigations. According to one embodiment, the retrieved information is displayed in a user friendly manner. For example, according to one aspect of the invention, the system is operable to display a summary report page for the selected vehicle. The summary report page preferably includes summary information relevant to the selected vehicle. Preferably, the system displays the summary report page without any charge to the user.
Advantageously, in one embodiment, the summary report page includes a list of vehicle report types and, for each vehicle report type listed, the summary report page includes the number of reports or other items found for each report type or those that have been issued or submitted within a given period of time. In one embodiment, the summary report page includes a list of four vehicle report types: (1) Technical Service Bulletins (TSBs); (2) consumer complaints; (3) NHTSA investigations; and (4) recall notices.
From the summary report page, the system allows the user to drill down to see more information about any of the report types relevant to the selected vehicle. For example, if the user selects to see more information about the TSBs, the system will display to the user a TSB summary report page. In this example, the TSB summary report page shows a list of vehicle component classifications (also referred to as xe2x80x9cvehicle componentxe2x80x9d for short), and, for each vehicle component classification in the list, the TSB summary report page shows the total number of TSBs stored in the system""s database that pertain to the selected vehicle and the vehicle component classification. Alternatively, instead of showing the total number of TSBs stored in the database that pertain to the selected vehicle and the vehicle component, the summary report shows the number of TSBs stored in the database that have been issued within the last X days and that pertain to the selected vehicle and the vehicle component, where X can be a number greater than zero.
The system also allows the user to indicate that he wants to see a detailed report concerning the selected vehicle, wherein the detailed report includes content from one or more of the vehicle reports that pertain to the selected vehicle. For example, from the TSB summary report page the user can activate a hyperlink or button or other selection device that indicates that user wants to see a detailed report page that pertains to the selected vehicle and that contains information from TSBs. In the above example, the system, in response to receiving the indication from the user, retrieves content from one or more TSBs that have been submitted to the NHTSA within a given time period and that concern the selected vehicle and displays the content to the user. Preferably, however, the system charges the user a set amount of money prior to displaying the detailed report page to the user. The user may be charged each time a detailed report page is generated for the user or may be charged a subscription fee that enables the user to view as many detailed reports concerning a particular vehicle (i.e., year, make and model) as the user likes within a set period of time.
From the detailed report page, the system enables the user to create a custom report. That is, the system enables the user to select one or more of the reports that are included in the detailed report page. Once the user has selected the one or more reports, the user can indicate that he would like the system to create a custom report based on the selected reports. In response to receiving the indication from the user, the system creates a custom report based on the reports selected by the user. The system allows the user to print download and/or electronically forward a copy of the custom report. The custom report includes information from the one or more reports selected by the user.
A further advantage of the system is that it allows a user to register with the system. The system provides to registered users certain functionality that is not available to non-registered users. If the user indicates the he would like to register with the system, the system displays a registration page to the user. The registration page prompts the user to input, at the least, an e-mail address and a password. The password selected by the user and the e-mail address are stored in the database. Additionally, the system associates a virtual garage with the user (i.e., the user""s e-mail address). In one implementation, the virtual garage may be a relational database table, linked list, or other data structure for storing a set of related items.
A feature provided by the system to registered users is the ability for the registered user to add vehicles to the virtual garage that is associated with the user. To add a vehicle to the virtual garage, the user specifies the vehicle by using the vehicle selector provided by the system to select a vehicle make, a vehicle model, and year (e.g., the user selects a 1967 Ford Mustang) and then instructs the system to add the specified vehicle to the virtual garage. Additionally, any time the user logs into the system using the user identifier and password and selects a vehicle using the vehicle selector provided by the system, the selected vehicle may be automatically added to the user""s virtual garage.
For a registered user, the system provides a vehicle chooser that enables the user to choose a vehicle that is in the user""s virtual garage. The system is also operable to provide a vehicle information input page that enables the user to input vehicle related information concerning the chosen vehicle. For example, the vehicle information input page enables a user to input into the system information, such as, but not limited to: a date of purchase, the number of miles on the vehicle, the date when the vehicle""s oil was changed last, the date when the tires where last rotated, the date and/or mileage when the vehicle""s warranty expires, an estimate of the average number of miles per year that are put on the vehicle, and other information concerning the vehicle. Additionally, the information input page enables a user to specify an e-mail address, telephone number, street address, or other address at which the user would like to receive any notifications concerning the chosen vehicle that are sent by the system. The notifications that the system is operable to send are described below. After the user inputs the vehicle related information and address information, if any, for the chosen vehicle, the system is operable to store the information in the database and associate the information with the chosen vehicle.
A further feature of the system is that the system enables the user to specify whether he would like to subscribe to a basic notification service that sends to the user notifications concerning one or more vehicles in the user""s virtual garage that the user has selected. In one embodiment, under the basic notification service, the user may elect to receive any combination of user selected notifications, including one or more of: basic summary report notifications concerning mechanical and safety issues related to the selected vehicles, basic vehicle maintenance reminder notifications concerning the selected vehicles, basic warranty expiration reminder notifications concerning the selected vehicles, basic alert notifications concerning the selected vehicles and other notifications.
If the user elects to receive the basic summary report notifications for a vehicle in his virtual garage, then the system at scheduled intervals or upon the trigger of a condition sends to the user a summary report concerning the vehicle. The summary report may include the same type of summary information as that which is included in a summary report page, which was described above, or other information.
If the user elects to receive the basic vehicle maintenance reminder notifications, then the system sends, at scheduled times or upon triggered conditions, notifications to the user that remind the user that he should take his vehicle into the shop for scheduled maintenance. For most vehicles, the manufacturer of the vehicle recommends that certain maintenance be performed at certain times or when certain events occur. For example, a manufacturer may recommend that the oil be changed about every 5,000 miles.
If the user selects to receive the basic warranty expiration reminder notifications for a vehicle in the user""s virtual garage, then the system sends, at the appropriate point in time, a notification to the user that reminds the user that the vehicle""s warranty is about to expire. In one embodiment, the system uses vehicle related information (e.g., year car was purchased and mileage shown on the odometer) and warranty terms (e.g., 2 year/24,000 mile warranty term) that were inputted by the user to determine the appropriate point in time in which to send the warranty expiration notification. In another embodiment, the system uses vehicle related information that was inputted by the user and warranty terms obtained from a third party database to determine the appropriate point in time in which to send the warranty expiration notification. The warranty expiration notification may include information about purchasing an extended warranty and may contain hyperlinks to affiliated vendors of such warranties. This feature makes it less expensive for a user to purchase an extended warranty before the original warranty expires.
If the user selects to receive the basic alert notifications for a vehicle in the user""s virtual garage, the system periodically determines whether a report (e.g., a TSB, recall notice, consumer complaint, or investigation report) concerning the vehicle has been submitted or issued since a given point in time and, immediately or soon after determining that such a report has been submitted or issued, transmitting a notification to the user, wherein the notification informs the user that the report has been submitted and may include content from the report. The user can configure the system to send alerts only if a certain type of report has been submitted or issued. For example, one user may only want to receive an alert notification if the vehicle has been recalled (i.e., a recall notice was issued), whereas another user may want to receive an alert notification if a recall notice or TSB has been issued.
In one embodiment, the above described basic notification service is provided free of charge to all registered users of the system. In another embodiment, a user must pay a fee to receive the basic notification service. In still another embodiment, the above described basic notification service is provided free of charge to all registered users of the system and the registered users have an option to subscribe for a fee to an enhanced notification service, which is described below. In still another embodiment both the enhanced notification service and the basic notification service are provided free of charge.
In one embodiment, the system is operable to provide the user an enhanced notification service. Under the enhanced notification service, the user may elect to receive any combination of: enhanced summary report notifications, enhanced vehicle maintenance reminder notifications, enhanced warranty expiration reminder notifications, and enhanced alert notifications.
The enhanced summary report notifications for a vehicle include the same information that is included in the basic summary report notifications plus additional information. The additional information may include content from recently issued reports concerning the vehicle. For example, an enhanced summary report notification may include a summary report as described above plus content from one or more TSBs, recall notices, consumer complaints, and/or NHTSA investigation reports that were issued since the last time a summary report notification was sent to the user. In this way, the user is automatically kept informed of mechanical and/or safety issues concerning his vehicle.
The enhanced vehicle maintenance reminder notifications for a vehicle include the same information that is included in the basic vehicle maintenance reminder notifications plus additional information. The additional information may include information that informs the user of common mechanical issues that the user should ask the repair shop to check and/or content from recently issued reports concerning the vehicle.
The enhanced warranty expiration reminder notifications for a vehicle include the same information that is included in the basic warranty expiration reminder notifications plus additional information. The additional information may include information that informs the user of common mechanical issues that the user should ask the repair shop to check and/or content from recently issued reports concerning the vehicle.
The enhanced alert notifications for a vehicle include the same information that is included in the basic alert notifications plus additional information. The additional information may include the name and address of the nearest repair shops where the vehicle may be taken to get fixed and/or a hyperlink to web page from which the user can schedule an appointment with the repair shops. The additional information may also include the contents of the recall notice.
All of the basic and enhanced notifications mentioned above can be sent in any suitable format to any suitable user terminal device, e.g., via e-mail, regular mail, facsimile, cell phone, telephone, PDA, pager and/or to any other suitable user terminal device, depending on how the user has personalized the notification service.
Another feature of the system is that the system is operable to enable the user to compare two or more vehicles to each other. This is a useful feature if the user is in the market to buy a new or used vehicle and at other times. For example, the system enables the user to select a first vehicle by one or more of year, make, and model, and select a second vehicle by one or more of year, make and model. After the user makes his selections, the system displays summary information for the first selected vehicle and summary information for the second selected vehicle. The summary information for each vehicle is displayed in such a way that the user can easily compare the summary information for the first vehicle to the summary information for the second vehicle. The summary information may be on a per report or per component basis. For example, the summary information for a vehicle may show the number of TSBs, consumer complaints, recall notices, and investigations that have been submitted for the vehicle. Additionally, the summery information may show the number of TSBs or other report that pertain to each vehicle component.
To provide the features mentioned above, the system may comprise a web site comprising a database of safety and maintenance information that is created automatically and/or manually. For example, the website may comprise software that obtains vehicle reports from one or more third parties. The reports may include TSBs, complaints submitted by consumers, reports regarding vehicle investigations, recall notices, and other vehicle reports. For example, in one embodiment, the software obtains TSBs, consumer complaints, investigation reports, and recall notices from databases provided by the NHTSA.
In one embodiment, the software performs a process that includes: periodically (weekly, monthly, etc.) obtaining from one or more third parties vehicle reports that have been issued within the last X days; storing the obtained reports in a database or other storage medium; for each obtained report, extracting from the report various components of the report, including one or more of the date of the report, the vehicle(s) to which the report pertains, the vehicle components to which the report pertains, the type of report, the source of the report, and other information; and using the system""s vehicle report database to associate each obtained report with the components of the report. The software may be further operable to execute scheduled events (e.g., summary report notifications, warranty expiration reminder notifications, etc.) and triggered events (e.g., alert notifications).
In another aspect of the invention, the invention provides a method that is designed to be performed by a vehicle owner (also referred to as xe2x80x9cuserxe2x80x9d) who is experiencing vehicle trouble with a component of his vehicle. The method includes: using a communication device to connect to an on-line vehicle information system after noticing that there is something wrong with the user""s vehicle; communicating to the on-line system the vehicle""s make, model, and year; receiving from the on-line system a summary report pertaining to the make, model, and year specified by the user; examining the summary report to determine whether the summary report indicates that one or more mechanical and/or safety issues have been reported for the component with which the user is experiencing trouble; if it is determined that one or more mechanical and/or safety issues have been reported for the component in issue, then purchasing a virtual key for the specified vehicle if the user does not already possess an active virtual key for the specified vehicle and requesting to see detailed information concerning the one or more reported mechanical and/or safety issues; receiving one or more records of information, wherein each of the one or more records of information includes information concerning one of the one or more reported mechanical and/or safety issues; selecting one or more of the one or more information records; sending a request to the on-line system to create a custom report based on the selected information records; receiving the custom report from the on-line system; printing a copy of the custom report; and taking the vehicle and the custom report to a vehicle repair shop.
In another aspect of the invention, the invention provides a method that is designed to be performed by a person (also referred to as xe2x80x9cuserxe2x80x9d) who is interested in purchasing a particular vehicle. The method includes: using a communication device to connect to an on-line vehicle information system; communicating to the on-line system the particular vehicle""s make, model, and year; receiving from the on-line system a summary report pertaining to all cars of the make, model, and year specified by the user; examining the summary report to determine whether the summary report indicates that one or more mechanical and/or safety issues have been reported for the particular vehicle; if it is determined that one or more mechanical and/or safety issues have been reported, then purchasing a key for the specified vehicle if the user does not already possess an active key for the specified vehicle and requesting to see detailed information concerning the one or more reported mechanical and/or safety issues; receiving one or more records of information, wherein each of the one or more records of information includes information concerning one of the one or more reported mechanical and/or safety issues; selecting one or more of the one or more information records; sending a request to the on-line system to create a custom report based on the selected information records; receiving the custom report from the on-line system; printing a copy of the custom report; and using the custom report as a negotiation tool if and when the user negotiates to purchase the particular vehicle.
Another method, according to the present invention, for assisting a user in purchasing a vehicle includes the steps of: connecting to an on-line vehicle information system; selecting a vehicle compare feature provided by the on-line system, wherein the compare feature allows the user to select two or more vehicles; selecting a first vehicle that the user is interested in purchasing; selecting a second vehicle that the user is interested in purchasing; communicating the vehicle selections to the on-line system; and receiving from the on-line system a comparison report, wherein the comparison report includes information concerning the specifications of the first vehicle and information concerning the specifications of the second vehicle, the comparison report also includes information that indicates the number of mechanical and/or safety issues for the first vehicle that have been reported within a given time period and information that indicates the number of mechanical and/or safety issues for the second vehicle that have been reported within the given time period. In one embodiment, the comparison report includes information that indicates the number of TSBs, recall notices, investigation reports, and/or consumer complaints for the first and second vehicles that have been submitted or issued within the given time period. In another embodiment, the comparison report compares the two vehicles on per component basis by showing summary report information for each vehicle component system. For example, the report may show that 10 consumer complaints concerning the first vehicle""s braking system have been submitted and only 1 consumer complaint concerning the second vehicle""s braking system has been submitted.
In another aspect, the invention provides a method that includes the following steps: providing a system that is publicly accessible; enabling a user who connects to the system to select a vehicle by year, make, and model; displaying for free to the user a summary report regarding the vehicle selected by the user; enabling the user to purchase a virtual key for the selected vehicle; receiving an indication from the user that the user desires to view a detailed report regarding the selected vehicle; determining whether the user has an active, virtual key for the selected vehicle; displaying the detailed report to the user in response to receiving the indication if it was determined that the user has an active, virtual key for the selected vehicle; enabling the user to select one or more entries from the detailed report; creating a custom report based on the one or more entries selected by the user; and displaying the custom report so that the user may examine the custom report.
Further steps of the method include some or all of the following steps: enabling the user to register with the system; prompting the user to enter an email address and password as part of the registration process; associating a virtual garage with the user""s email address; enabling the user to select one or more vehicles and adding them to his virtual garage; for each vehicle in the garage, enabling the user to input information concerning the vehicle (such as the number of miles on the car, the last time the car""s oil was changed, the date and/or mileage when the car""s warranty expires, the date vehicle was purchased, and other information concerning the vehicle); for each vehicle in the garage, enabling the user to specify that he would like to receive free notifications concerning the vehicle; for a vehicle in the user""s garage for which the notification service is enabled, periodically sending to the user a notification concerning the vehicle; for a vehicle in the user""s garage for which a notification service is enabled and for which a warranty is close to expiring, sending a notification that reminds the user that the warranty is about to expire (the notification may include (a) information about purchasing an extended warranty, (b) a hyperlink to an affiliated vender of extended warranties; (c) information about common mechanical issues that the user may want to have checked by a mechanic while the car is still under warranty and (d) other useful vehicle related information); periodically determining if a report (e.g., a TSB, recall notice, consumer complaint, or investigation report) concerning one of the vehicle""s in the user""s virtual garage has been submitted or issued since a given point in time and, immediately or soon after determining that such a report has been issued, transmitting a notification to the user, wherein the notification informs the user that the report has been submitted and may include content from the report; and providing various subscription levels, for example, all subscribers receive notifications and other basic services, but only premium service level subscribers can receive detail and custom reports and other premium services. Additionally, the price of premium service level subscriptions can be based on the number of cars that the user wants to have covered by the service.